This invention relates to an indicator tag for visually indicating the remaining effectiveness of a protective chemical treatment agent on a textile article.
A variety of protective chemical treatments are used to impart a particular desired characteristic to a textile article. Various treatments include flame retardants, antimicrobial agents, antistatic agents and the like. Of particular importance is the application of flame retardants to textile articles. Flame retardants are widely used on textile articles, particularly for fabrics used in various types of wearing apparel, such as children's wearing apparel.
Despite the advantages afforded by the these various protective chemical treatments, the treatments lose their effectiveness under certain conditions. For example, a protective chemical treatment on a textile article may lose its effectiveness gradually by washing away as the article is laundered numerous times. A protective chemical treatment may also lose its effectiveness quickly due to improper handling and laundering of the textile article. For example, exposure of a textile article to an oxidizing agent such as chlorine bleach, may cause immediate loss of the effectiveness of many protective chemical treatment agents.
Many of these protective chemical treatments are not visible to the consumer when applied to a textile article. Because the consumer cannot see the protective treatment on the textile article, he cannot determine when the protective chemical treatment has lost its effectiveness. Therefore, there is a need for indicating a loss of the effectiveness of these protective chemical treatment agents.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,311,479 to Fenn discloses the use of a dye which bonds preferentially to an antimicrobial treatment such that when the dye disappears from the fabric due to washing, there is an indication that the antimicrobial treatment is exhausted. In Fenn, however, the dye is applied as thin stripes or dots or some similar configuration over the entire surface of a substrate impregnated with an antimicrobial agent. Since this affects the overall appearance of the substrate, this restricts significantly the applicability of this treatment.
It would, therefore, be highly desirable to have a simple method of visually indicating the effectiveness of a protective chemical treatment agent without affecting the overall appearance of the substrate thus treated.